I was able to catch the James Turrell exhibit at the Guggenheim, about a week before it closed. The Guggenheim was packed with long lines to view Turrell’s incredible concept, called “Aten Reign” (2013), of turning the rotunda into a viewing space of shifting colors and shapes, in red, pink, blue, yellow, green, purple, brown, gray, and white. Artificial and natural lights played on Frank Lloyd Wright’s interior architecture. The spiral walkways that one usually traverses, to see the paintings and art works displayed in expansive largesse, were all closed, as that spiral was wrapped to form a spiraling sphere of illuminated color, a totally zen experience. Visitors were lying on the lobby floor, looking up and around, or sitting on the circular lobby benches, enjoying the warmly colored ambiance.

In the enclosed galleries, Turrell’s other works, that explore the manipulation and perception of space, by shining a white light into a bare dark room, were fascinating. With “Afrum” (White) 1967, visitors see a white cube of light that appears to float, mid-air, in a corner of the room, and the entire optical illusion is mesmerizing. Another work, “Prado” (White) 1967, looks like a visitor could see right through the wall into another space. "Ronin" 1968 looks like a tall vertical tube of light. This exhibit is developed with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. (Assisted by Guggenheim Museum web notes).